The Brotherhood of the Junglecock WeekenFly Fishing Camp

Friday, May 18th - The alarm went off and after 20 minutes, we were on the road headed up for Camp Airy to help with the fish stocking. I met my sponsor and we drove to a private section of Owens Creek to stock the trout, all 500. We stocked two places, one section for the third and fourth year boys, and one for the fifth year boys. I was put in the fourth year boys although it was my first time. We waded down the creek carrying a "box of Trout," releasing a couple every 10 feet. After stocking, we went back to camp, checked in and went to our cabins. After that, we were off to the ponds to fish for the Trout stocked a couple days ago, they opened up at one o'clock. 15 minutes of waiting later, I cast my line and I'm quickly rewarded with a decent 15" largemouth and a 1/4 oz. Joe's Flies. The next cast I would land a rainbow, and the next cast I would land another rainbow, then no trout the rest of the day. I then fished for sunnies and bass, and caught plenty of each on both fly and spin tackle.

When the bite slowed down, my sponsor and I headed to the freshly stocked Owens Creek, only managed one, saw plenty…

Saturday, May 20th - After getting some breakfast, I walked down to the ponds to see if I couldn't get something to hit on the woollybuggers that I just tied in the Frank Bentz Hall. Well, I got nothing, so it was time for lunch. After lunch, fourth year students got on the bus and headed to a private section of Owens. First it was fishing time, I landed some chubs and redear sunfish, and a new species, the….hornyhead chub. The horn blew, and a group went to entomology. After that, we headed back down to the stream for some casting practice, and that's where I caught some trout that we stocked the previous day. They were rising to what looked like a small mayfly hatch. But me and a friend landed something, or had something hit every good cast under an overhanging tree with just a small princehead nymph under a lightning strike indicator.

We got back on the bus, and on the way back dropped whoever wanted to participate in the casting contest off at the ponds. The targets were three hula hoops positioned with a weight at different distances. I think I did pretty well, I received third at dinner that night, and I picked out a 8'6" 7wt HT combo with Cortland First Cast WF7F line.

That night was the special program and campfire in which I got initiated into The Brotherhood. The day was great.

Sunday, May 21st - The last day was sort of a wrap up of everything that happened on Saturday and Sunday. There were no classes, and we mostly fished the whole day along with a little breakfast and lunch when my family swung by. The morning arose early, and I packed up my belongings, and my next goal was to get a little food in my tummy. After eating, I headed down to the pond. Tons of people were there enjoying the last day of fishing, I did catch a few sunfish (bluegill + redear sunfish) and bass, and even a couple trout on nymphs. The trout were relating to shade and sometimes they were also rising to maybe damselfly hatches. I caught a great 17.5 inch rainbow, which was the biggest fish of mine during the weekend. The whole week was great, and in case you did not see the May 27th Frederick News Post Outdoor section, Dan Neuland (fellow member of PVFF, and will be the featured guest speaker at June's meeting) did a great write up about the whole weekend, and you can view the article on the Frederick News Post website.

My First Ever Musky

I thought I would share my first ever musky caught...a fight for sure…

I started off the night loading my bass stuff into one of the member's boats, it was Thursday night and our bass club Boonsboro Bassmasters was going out on the Potomac above Dam Four for some "practice". At about five o'clock, we headed out and motored far up-river. We stopped at a rock point where I quickly got into some 12 inch keeper smallmouth using a Bomber square A that dives to about 3-4 feet depending on your retrieve. After having some time with no luck, we motored farther up river to a steep drop where two feet from the shoreline, it is 15 feet deep. I pitched my 1/8 oz. Greg Hackney Hack Attack jig with a Yum trailer into some wood cover, and starting dragging it along the bottom. BOOM…it is a big fish. I fight it hard and we troll out of the cover into more open water. I continue fighting the fish, then it makes a huge leap out of water…Muskellunge. The adult gets the net and after a couple missed attempts, the fish is in the boat! We measured it, a 27 inches musky, and my first ever. We get it back in the water and it swims off. We had no camera to take a photograph, but trust me, I will never forget it. One more thing…it was caught on 6 lb test, luckily the fish was hooked outside of the mouth and did not break the line. After that fight, two casts later I land a 17 inch largemouth which won the little competition that our club has each outing.

Mid-Summer Trout Fishing

Type: Freshwater
Region: Central
Location: Various Ponds and Creeks

It is almost June, this means 80-90 degree temperatures and too hot for trout, right? Wrong, summer trout fishing is highly underutilized in our area. Most people think that all of the fish stocked will be caught or die when the water warms up. The fact is that in suitable streams (a suitable trout stream is one where the water temperatures do not exceed 65-67 degrees) only about 50-70% of trout stocked actually get taken home for dinner. Summer decreases water levels substantially and it is a lot easier to find trout then in other months when they could be virtually anywhere. Some key features to look for when trying to find summer trout holding locations are springs, shade, oxygen (in the form of riffles), and cover or deep water. Springs can be quite difficult to find, but I have found that the best time to locate underwater springs is in the winter when there are water plants growing around them. In a stream you could walk for a quarter mile and not find any decent holding spots, or there could be a spot every 50 feet, but usually they will not be close to each other. Some great locations for mid-summer trout are Owens Creek, Antietam Creek, Friends Creek, Beaver Creek, and some that might or might not hold fish during a hot summer depending on temperatures include Middle Creek, Catoctin Creek, Fishing Creek, and Israel Creek.

Ponds, as well, are highly under-fished in the months of May, June, July, and August. In most ponds the trout will die unless there is some kind of cold water source coming in. Just this past week, I was fishing Big Hunting Creek and only landed two, and on the way back, we stopped at Frank Bentz Memorial Lake. If you had looked at the lake you would have thought there was a breeze, but that was just all of the ripples from rising fish. The fish were rising to a massive mayfly hatch in which hundreds of trout were participating. If you were to drain any pond or lake, I bet anyone would be surprised at just how many fish are left. This mid-summer trout thing is really getting popular, I urge you to go out, because you will probably catch more than you did opening day. Remember: go early or late, because later in the day the fish will go deep to retreat from the sun.

Warmwater Fishing

Type: Freshwater
Region: Central
Location: Local Warmwater Pond

Warmwater fishing is, I think, at it's best right now because the sunfish are spawning and some of the bass are still on their beds. Some people disagree with fishing for sunfish and bass when they are on their beds, but as long as you handle the fish gently, release it quickly, and don't hit the bed with your lure, the fish are always fine. During spawning is when all of the big fish get caught because you can easily see them, and they are easiest to catch at this time.

As far as technique, any Panfish jig or lure will catch them, but I went with trout magnet in bison and a green/black color today and caught more than I could count. I like to fish it without an indicator and just twitch it in slowly--they are bound to hit it. Www.devinsfishingreports.com

Caught a Nice Carp on the Potomac

Type: Freshwater
Region: Central
Location: Potomac River Dam No. 5

We headed to Dam No. 5, which I think is the best dam fishing spot in Maryland just because of the amount of space the fish have there, it's huge. After catching a nice channel on hotdog as cutbait, I landed a nice 26 inch common carp which put up a nice fight. 10 minutes later, zmmmmmmmmmmm…there goes my Peen Fierce reel screaming. This fish was big. It could've been anything, but it was fighting like a huge carp. I adjusted my drag to the tightest, anymore and the line would have snapped. I couldn't stop him, he just kept going until he broke me off.

Tackle: Heavy stuff, 20lb PowerPro braid with a heavy saltwater setup if you expect to land a giant carp. As far as rigs, the slip rig is a great one, with a number 4 SSW Owner hook. Corn is the bait to use, or doughballs.

Helping Out at the Gambrill Youth Rodeo

Type: Freshwater
Region: Central
Location: Gambrill Rock Run Pond

The Gambrill Fishing Rodeo @ Rock Run Pond was last Saturday morning and it had a terrific turnout. 30 some kids showed up out of the 40 that were supposed to, and almost all of them caught a fish. The ones who didn't, I know still had a fun time. The Rodeo got great donations from Penn, Rapala, Friends of Cunningham and a few others. We had about 15 - 20 rods donated, which were given out to kids randomly. Each kid took home a goodie bag with some decent Rapalas and some other fishing stuff. I saw an old buddy there, and the kid he was helping out caught his limit in no more than 20 minutes. After about an hour, the fishing turned down, and fish were just being caught here and there; a couple people were still pulling them out though. I helped out numerous people with tangles, how to fish, and un-snagging their lures. The biggest fish of the tournament was probably either a 16 inch rainbow caught by the kid mentioned above. There was also another big(ger) fish caught by a boy on the other side of the lake. I didn't get to see it, but it looked like a good 16 or 17 inches. All in all, it was a very good tournament, everyone left with smiles on their faces.

Whenever, wherever you get a chance to help out or volunteer…take it, it gives you warm feeling inside that you did something right.

Fishing at Owens Creek

Headed to Owens, first stop was the Roddy Road Bridge. No trout taken from here, but I did catch 2 redear sunfish. As I worked my way upstream, towards the route 15 bridge there were a lot of people here especially for 3 o'clock during the week. When fishing a creek like this, you remember two things, and they are…

1. You must think like a stocking truck. Fish won't be in the middle of nowhere because the DNR will stock close to the road or wherever they can pull off. So don't fish every single hole, or it will take you a couple days here in Owens.

2. Look for the (golden) rainbow trout, most likely a couple golden rainbow trout will be mixed in with the rainbows in each hole. If you don't see a golden right after stocking then "most likely" it will be a hit or miss kind of thing.

There were a lot of fish-filled pools, only one thing, they were all filled with anglers. I managed to fish one pool below the route 15 bridge and they weren't hitting. Upstream we went, headed up to where the mudslide along 550 was a couple months back. Tons of fish here. I saw one guy land like a 19 incher. I managed 4 rainbows. Not too bad. I really don't know why more people don't take advantage of this awesome location later in spring and summer. There are some nice holes in the mid-section of Owens, some that hold over some really trout.

You can see this and other fishing reports for Mid-Maryland, at www.devinsfishingreports.com.

Good Brook Trout Fishing

Well, I went out for some nice mountain stream brook trout fly fishing this past week. Hit three spots, Little Fishing Creek, then two Catoctin streams. Landed 3 in LFC, 7 on the second stream, and 13 in the last stream. All caught on a Parachute Adama, 16 and Elk Hair Caddis, 14 and 12. I was fishing a 3 weight Lefty Kreh Pro Series rod with a 9ft leader tapering down to 2ft off 5 or 4x tippet. Biggest fish was around 6 inches from Little Fishing Creek. Nothing beats brook trout fishing.

Caught 51 fish on Greenbrier Lake

Type: Freshwater
Region: Central
Location: Greenbrier Lake

What a day(s) at Greenbrier, 20 fish the first day and 31 in the second day makes 51 fish in two days. I don't know about you, but that's pretty good for me. Let's start off with the fish count...
Day 1 started off with fish rising everywhere especially Trout. You could paddle along and just spot the Goldens in your kayak. I saw a lot of fish, especially small Bass and some Sunfish, while paddling the that shallow half of the lake straight out from the fishing dock. Basically all I did was cast out the Trout Magnet with it rigged under a strike indicator and let it sit. Sometimes you could give it a little plop to give it some action. The second day was just like the first one only I got to stay longer. I targeted Trout at first, they were holding high in the water column and were everywhere rising. But, you just couldn't paddle to where they just rose, they would be gone. I guess it is kind of luck in locating them. I caught several of the Trout about 100 feet out from the boat rental dock. Just cast it along the drop off there and boom, you would have a hit. Then I located the Panfish, in the other corner of the lake, kind of near the dam. I do not have a graph, so I guess you can say that I am just guessing on where to fish if I am in deeper water and cannot see the bottom. It was a great two days, I took lots of pics too. One Bluegill was pushing 10 inches or 10.5, we'll say 10. Caught a couple nice Redears too. Some of the Trout had injuries on them and the Golden that I caught on the second day had some kind of lesion on it of some sort I think.

Devil's Backbone Park- 79 Degress in Mid-March

Type: Freshwater
Region: Western
Location: Antietam Creek

After hearing that the park is now open and fisherman have been fishing there daily, I gave it a go. The park doesn't officially reopen until the Parks and Rec announce it on the first weekend of May. Even though they have completed construction on the dam, they will be doing some landscaping work and possibly doing some work to maintenance road on the east side of the creek from the dam down to the pedestrian bridge. In this area there is a lot of erosion and there are a lot of holes. The parking lot is still closed so you can park at a number of locations…
1.) At one of the many pull offs along the road if you are approaching the park from Boonsboro.
2.) At the other park parking lot which is right beside of Mulendore's Auctions, this is above 1/4 mile upriver of the dam, just continue up Lappans Road to get there.
Both of the places require a little walking. They have restored the creek bank on the west side of the creek right above the dam, so now if you park at the upper parking lot, you do not have to walk on the tight road, you can walk on the stream bank. Everything overall is very better and looks much better.

BUT... and it's a big but, the big Carp are not here. As you can tell by the photo, the water is very shallow and could not hold Carp (the big ones). I'm pretty sure they have migrated downstream because of the construction, but they will be back by Summer as they always are. The fish in the picture to the right is I think a small Common Carp, but the Suckers are harder to tell apart with the Carp when they are smaller.

The fishing right at the dam is I think a little overlooked right nojust because of the past construction, and not to mention most spots are really shallow except the areas where the water plunges down from the dam. On the east side of the creek there is a big pocket with a lot of slack water. The water plunges down from the dam then it goes around a big boulder that is sticking straight up from underwater and that is the pocket. It's around 6 feet deep and holds no fish because the spot is really revealing, but I discovered something pretty awesome. I have concluded this after months of watching the Carp here pre-construction and for a couple hours during fishing. I have concluded that fish come into this pocket to rest, you can't just throw your line in here and catch one, they are not there all the time. The Carp that I have seen here pre-construction did not stay here long, like 2 minutes at the most. Yeah, I know exactly what you are thinking, "I'm gonna go in there and catch Carp like crazy when all this construction stuff is finished and when they migrate back up here." The Carp that live here during the regular season can't be caught. Yep, I just said it, a fish that can't be caught.

Pre-construction there were trees and bushes and a big 10 foot fence on the east side of the creek at the section right below the dam. This prevented you from casting to this great pocket, but I did see 2 people fish it back in Spring. They somehow climbed the side of the wall and cast to 'em, nada (nothing). I have even waded (bad me-no wading allowed!) out and casted to them before and still nada. If you can catch one of these giants on 2lb test, you'll be the new holder for the Carp (Grass or Common) 2lb Test World Record, but I will beat that record in April when I travel to my Carp Hole (I was 3lbs away from beating that record last year, it was a three hour fight. My Mom just left and ate lunch while I was fighting him, she came back...I was still fighting him.)

Anyway, the fishing was great, I ended up with 1 puny Common Carp, 1 Rainbow Trout, 2 Redear Sunfish, and 1 Fallfish, all caught in that pocket. Like I said above, the fish do not hang out here because the spot is too revealing, but they will come in on occasion. That could be every minute or every hour, no one knows. I caught them all on Trout Magnet under a strike indicator. I did not use fluoro only because I forgot it, but I still ended up with some fish. a small size BB or B split shot about 4 inches above the Trout Magnet is necessary as there is a lot of current here. The magic depth was around 3 feet, (between the jig and the strike indicator). My website url is www.devinsfishingreports.com.